President Tinubu needs to fight back against insecurity by launching Operation Gomorrah and then passing a law paying security votes directly to police commissioners

Ayo Akinfe

[1] First of all, the federal government needs to make a statement on the activities of armed Fulani herdsmen, kidnappers, Islamist terrorists, armed robbers etc. Personally, I would launch a new campaign named Operation Gomorrah against them

[2]Traditionally, armed robbery in Nigeria has been multi-ethnic and equal opportunity but this recent pandemic is too Fulani. As we all know, when things take on an ethnic dimension in Nigeria, they get scary. To remedy this anomaly, we need new laws past fast

[3] What I struggle to get my head round is how did these guys manage to open camps all over Nigeria where they train their members and build hostage detention centres without anybody noticing. Kidnapping actually started off as a localised business in the southeast but it appears the Fulani have now taken over and turned it into a nationwide phenomenon

[4] When Evans and his gang were in business, they were a wholly Igbo operation, kidnapping Igbo victims across the southeast, so it did not have any ethnic dimension to it. We dismissed it as an “Igbo problem.” Today, we are paying the price for this negligence

[5] Over the last two decades or so, armed Fulani kidnappers have forest dens in virtually every state of Nigeria from where they attack any motorway. They have exploited the growth of online banking in Nigeria to the maximum by getting the families of victims to transfer money into accounts without making contact

[6] What I do not get is why nobody tracked these funds. At some stage, the kidnappers have to withdraw the money from the bank, which is where the police should be waiting for them. As things stand, the kidnappers are free to do as they please with no hindrance whatsoever

[7] Every state in Nigeria has a police commissioner with men under his command. Is there anything stopping them raiding these camps, closing down these bank accounts and policing these motorways to end this scourge?

[8] I hope President Tinubu realises that it is only a matter of time before this sparks another major ethnic crisis? Just imagine what will happen if Ipob youths storm a Fulani camp in the southeast. They will cleanse the place of these criminals and before you know it, there will be reprisals in northern Nigeria. Alas, within a week, we will have a full blown ethnic cleansing catastrophe on our hands

[9] Over the long term, what bothers me most is that we have set an ugly precedent of one ethnic group being able to act with impunity and in defiance of the law simply because the president was one of theirs. This ugly trend can set off a chain reaction with other ethnic groups following suit in the future. It could also lead to the Fulani reluctant to ever allow anyone who is not one of theirs become president. Their leaders will be under pressure not to risk being “in opposition.”

[10] President Tinubu now needs to get the National Assembly to pass a Nigerian Security Vote Amendment Bill, paying money directly to state police commissioners instead of governors. Let this at least be the start of the fightback

ayoakinfe@gmail.com

www.ayoakinfe.com

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